Heating bills are taking a toll on Douglas County residents.

Social service agencies are receiving more requests this year from people who want help paying those bills. Many of them are victims of the poor economy, agency representatives said.

“What we’re seeing are people who’ve lost employment or had their hours cut,” said Jeanette Collier, director of East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corp., 2518 Ridge Court. “It’s people who never had to access a service before. They’re quite embarrassed.”

There are other people who generally apply for help each year because they are on fixed incomes, Collier said.

ECKAN is one of six agencies receiving heating assistance funds through Warm Hearts of Douglas County. ECKAN and other agencies, including Penn House and the Ballard Center, form Ballard Community Services and share resources.

In 2008 Warm Hearts helped 1,653 people in 456 households stay warm through heating bill assistance. The average assistance per household was $216 and all payments were made either to the utility company or vendor providing heating to the households.

Fifty-one applications were received by Ballard Community Services in the first week of this month, the latest figures available.

“That’s quite a few,” said Andrew Brown, director of human services at the Ballard Center, 708 Elm. “I expect we’ll see an increase in applicants in 2009.”

Other agencies receiving funds through Warm Hearts include the Salvation Army, Women’s Transitional Care Services and Douglas County Senior Services.

Volunteers and employees at senior services keep an eye on the elderly they assist, director John Glassman said. When meals are delivered to the homebound, the delivery person checks to see how the client is doing.

“The thing we’re noticing is people are turning down their heat. They are sitting in their chairs all bundled up,” Glassman said. “Part of our instructions to our volunteers and drivers is to check the thermostat and make sure the person is not in a danger zone.”

What’s happening in Douglas County is happening across the nation. About 7.3 million households are expected to receive $5.1 billion in assistance from the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association. That is 1.5 million more households than last year.

If there is any good news about home heating costs it is that it could be worse.

Natural gas prices in December are about the same as the previous December, Black Hills Energy spokesman Curt Floerchinger said.

“It looks like they’ve been holding steady,” he said. “They’ve been going down lately, so that certainly helps.”

Black Hills buys quantities of gas throughout the year and then buys it on the spot market if it needs to supplement its supplies, Floerchinger said.

Black Hills declined to release any information about how many of its customers are significantly behind in paying their bills. Black Hills does work out payment plans with customers having difficulty paying their bills.

“The first thing anybody should do as soon as they realize that they are going to be struggling to pay their bills is to call us,” Floerchinger said.

The number is 1-888-890-5554.